Fields v. State Department of Human Resources ex rel. Fields

226 So. 3d 188, 2016 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 295, 2016 WL 7176567
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedDecember 9, 2016
Docket2150799
StatusPublished

This text of 226 So. 3d 188 (Fields v. State Department of Human Resources ex rel. Fields) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fields v. State Department of Human Resources ex rel. Fields, 226 So. 3d 188, 2016 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 295, 2016 WL 7176567 (Ala. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

DONALDSON, Judge.

This appeal involves the right of a person whose wages are subject to a writ of garnishment to an opportunity to be heard to contest the writ. We hold that the person whose wages are subject to a writ of garnishment is entitled to be heard if a hearing is requested. See Robbins v. State ex rel. Priddy, 109 So.3d 1128, 1131 (Ala. Civ. App. 2012) (“Alabama’s garnishment statutes recognize that both the putative garnishee and the defendant are entitled to notice and an opportunity to appear as parties in interest entitled to assert their respective positions as to the plaintiffs garnishment claim.”).

Terry W. Fields (“the former husband”) and Renetta Fields (“the former wife”) were divorced by a judgment of the Jefferson Circuit Court (“the trial court”) in January 1993. Pursuant to the parties’ settlement agreement that was incorporated into the divorce judgment, the former husband agreed to pay $399 per month in support for the parties’ two minor children.

On November 9, 2015, a process-of-garnishment form was filed’ in the trial court under the case number assigned to the divorce proceedings. The record shows that the form was prepared by the State of Alabama Department of Human Resources (“DHR”), and it listed “State of Alabama, ex rel. Renetta Fields,” in thev space provided for the name of the plaintiff or person asserting the claim. In the space-provided for the designation of the attorney for the plaintiff, the name of a DHR attorney was listed. The address for DHR was also listed as the address for the plaintiff. The former husband was listed as the defendant. On the form, DHR identified the date of the judgment sought to be collected by the garnishment as July 21, 2015, and a purported judgment amount of $149,275.41. DHR included costs of $45,95 for a total amount claimed of $149,321.36.

The form contained a preprinted affidavit that states, in part: “I make oath that I have obtained the above judgment and believe the named garnishee is or will be indebted to the named defendant or has or will have effects of the defendant under the garnishee’s control.” An attorney for DHR signed the affidavit before a notary public.

The trial court issued a writ of garnishment, which was served on the former husband’s employer, Cullman Casting Corp. (“the garnishee”), on November 12, 2015. The former husband was served with notice of the garnishment on November 23, 2015. The notice form contained information notifying the former husband that he could file a claim of exemptions to the garnishment. On December 1, 2015, the garnishee filed its answer in the trial court in which it stated: “[Ojbligor is employed and garnishee will withhold from the salary, wages, or compensation, as required, and pay into court.”

On January 14, 2016, DHR filed a motion requesting the trial court to condemn the funds that had been withheld under the garnishment to that point and to enter an order directing that future garnished amounts be forwarded to the Alabama Child Support Payment Center. On January 15, 2016, the trial court entered an order granting DHR’s motion.

On January 26, 2016, the former husband filed a “motion to quash garnishment and motion for relief from judgment.” He described the motion as being filed under Rule 60, Ala. R. Civ. P. In the motion, the former husband asserted, among other [190]*190things, that no action pertaining to the divorce judgment had been filed since the entry of the January 1993 judgment, that there had been no determination of any child-support arrearage or a judgment entered for the amount claimed, that he did not owe any child support, and that he had been denied due process of law by the issuance of the writ of garnishment without an underlying judgment to support the writ.

On February 1, 2016, the trial court entered an order purportedly granting the former husband’s motion to quash but also ordering that “[t]he garnishment be stayed and the Clerk of the Court is to hold all current funds received via the garnishment and shall not dispose of any funds pending further order of this Court.” The matter was set for a hearing on March 3, 2016. On April 20, 2016, the trial court entered an order that provided, among other things, that “the order to stay the garnishment is hereby set aside and held for naught” and that “the garnishment shall continue as previously ordered.”

On May 27, 2016, the former husband filed another motion, entitled “motion for relief from judgment,” seeking to have the trial court set aside its April 20, 2016, order and the writ of garnishment. In the motion, the former husband made the same factual assertions that he had made in his previous motion, but he also asserted that the former wife had failed to appear at the hearing on March 3, 2016, and that the trial court had continued the case in order to have the former wife appear at a future hearing. The record does not indicate that the trial court ruled on the former husband’s May 27, 2016, motion. The former husband filed a notice of appeal to this court on May 31, 2016. Assuming we have jurisdiction, see discussion, infra, appellate jurisdiction of this matter is appropriate in this court pursuant to § 12-3-10, Ala. Code 1975, because it is an appeal from a judgment entered in a domestic-relations case. See also § 6-6-464, Ala. Code 1975 (“An appeal [in garnishment proceedings] lies to the supreme court or the court of civil appeals, as the case may be, at the instance of the plaintiff, the defendant, the garnishee, or the contestant, or claimant.”).

We must first determine whether this court has jurisdiction to consider the former husband’s appeal. Nunn v. Baker, 518 So.2d 711, 712 (Ala. 1987) (“[J]urisdictional matters are of such magnitude that we take notice of them at any time and do so even ex mero motu.”). The former husband filed two motions attacking the issuance of the writ of garnishment, which he claimed were filed pursuant to Rule 60, Ala. R. Civ. P. One motion was filed on January 26, 2016, and a second motion was filed on May 27, 2016. Although the trial court purportedly “granted” the former husband’s January 26, 2016, motion in its February 1, 2016, order, that order only temporarily stayed the garnishment until a hearing could be held on the motion. In its April 20, 2016, order, the trial court denied the former husband’s January 26, 2016, motion and dissolved the stay of the garnishment. The former husband thereafter filed a second motion attacking the writ of garnishment, but, according to the record, the trial court had not ruled on that motion at the time of the former husband’s May 31, 2016, notice of appeal.1

The former husband’s January 26, 2016, motion contained the following arguments [191]*191and requests for relief, among other requests:

“10) That the Defendant is being deprived of Due Process of law when a garnishment is issued by the Clerk and there is no judgment entered as alleged in the process of garnishment.
“11) The Defendant would request that this court set this matter for a hearing to determine if there is a judgment and the amount of the arrearages, if any that are owed by the Defendant.”

The former husband’s January 26, 2016, motion sought “relief from the garnishment issued by the Clerk on October 29, 2015.”2 In the January 26, 2016, motion, the former husband specifically requested a hearing to challenge the writ of garnishment by asserting that he did not owe the amounts being claimed and that there was no judgment to support the garnishment.

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Green v. Green
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Edwards v. Edwards
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Robbins v. State ex rel. Priddy
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
226 So. 3d 188, 2016 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 295, 2016 WL 7176567, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fields-v-state-department-of-human-resources-ex-rel-fields-alacivapp-2016.